


How Wonderful Life Is (While You're In The World)

by redex_writes



Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28665366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redex_writes/pseuds/redex_writes
Summary: On the first day of second grade, the new kid in class stole Vincent’s lunch. It had been his favourite: an apple juice box, a bag of animal crackers, and a peanut butter sandwich his mom had cut into the shape of a star; all tucked neatly into his Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox. One minute it had been in his cubby, and the next, he was watching in horror as some kid he didn’t know devoured his food. When the kid caught him looking he just grinned, proud and mean, with peanut butter in his teeth.Vincent and Leo were unlikely friends, but friends nonetheless. Despite the world around them changing day by day, some things will always stay the same.
Relationships: Leo Caruso & Vincent Moretti, Leo Caruso/Vincent Moretti
Kudos: 17





	How Wonderful Life Is (While You're In The World)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally a [tumblr request](https://redex-writes.tumblr.com/post/639580119847075840/awo-childhood-friends-growing-up-au-fic-can-be)
> 
> Title from _Your Song_ by Elton John.

On the first day of second grade, the new kid in class stole Vincent’s lunch. It had been his favourite: an apple juice box, a bag of animal crackers, and a peanut butter sandwich his mom had cut into the shape of a star; all tucked neatly into his _Thomas the Tank Engine_ lunchbox. One minute it had been in his cubby, and the next, he was watching in horror as some kid he didn’t know devoured his food. When the kid caught him looking he just grinned, proud and mean, with peanut butter in his teeth.

On the first day of second grade, Vincent got into his first fight. He told his mom he’d fallen off his bike on the way home, and ignored the suspicious looks his parents gave him when he took third helpings at dinner.

On the first day of fourth grade, Vincent grit his teeth when he saw that mop of black hair from across the playground.

Leo caught his eye before he could duck away, and his face split into that stupid grin that Vincent had come to hate.

“How’s it going, Moretti Spaghetti?”

Vincent huffed through his nose, already annoyed. “That’s still a stupid name.”

“I know, right? Can’t believe your ma named you that.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes, but Leo’s smug look didn’t waver.

“Why’re you here?”

He looked at Vincent, furrowing his brow in confusion. “Because...it’s recess?”

“I mean, here.” Vincent gestured to the school. “Emily said that Sean told her that Harvey said you moved.”

Leo shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn’t smug anymore.

“What’d Harvey say?”

“Uh…” Vincent hesitated, stomach turning uncomfortably when he remembered what he’d been told. Leo just stared at him, waiting.

“He said you...that your foster family kicked you out, and you went back to the...y’know.”

Saying it to Leo’s face was a lot more awkward than hearing it from his best friend. Leo was staring at the ground, tightly clutching his jacket on either arm.

“Well, I didn’t,” he said finally, voice strangely thick. “Harvey’s a liar.”

“I’m sorry,” Vincent started, but Leo was already turning and stalking away.

Guilty and subdued, Vincent couldn’t help but sneak glances at Leo for the rest of the day. When everyone got up to get their lunch boxes from their cubbies Leo stayed seated, staring down at his desk and ignoring the chattering of their classmates. The cubby with his name on it was empty.

On the second day of fourth grade, Vincent grabbed an extra juice box and bag of animal crackers when his mom wasn’t looking. Leo didn’t notice them sitting in his cubby until lunch time, and Vincent watched out of the corner of his eye as he looked around, hesitated, then scooped them up and took them to his desk.

Leo got a bicycle on their last day of sixth grade. Vincent was happy for his friend, but at the same time…

“Psst! Vince!”

Vincent blinked the last dregs of sleep from his mind. His room was dark, apart from the sliver of moonlight from the window. The light summer breeze washed over him, carrying the sound of crickets and the scent of honeysuckle and…

When did he open his window?

“Vincent!”

“Gah!” Vincent yelped, startling hard enough that he fell out of bed. He hit the ground with a _thunk_ , elbow smacking painfully into the nightstand.

A snort of laughter from the window made him whip his head around.

Leo was grinning at him, bright-eyed and outlined by the light of the full moon. He was holding Vincent’s window open with one hand, tightly clutching the edge of his window sill with the other. Even in the moonlight, Vincent could tell his knuckles were white with how hard he was holding on.

“Leo, it’s--” he grabbed his alarm clock and turned it towards him, “--two-thirty in the morning!”

“Sure is.” Leo’s cocky look hadn’t faded, but Vincent had known him long enough to be able to hear the slight tremor in his voice. He was already wary about the height of the climb up to Vincent’s window, but it was the middle of the night--it must’ve been important to get him up there.

Vincent sighed, but there was no irritation behind it.

“Let me put on some shoes, at least.”

Leo nodded, continuing to cling to the windowsill as he watched Vincent slip his feet into an old pair of sneakers and pull his housecoat on. After a moment’s consideration, he opened the drawer of his nightstand and pulled out two granola bars, stuffing them into his pocket before climbing out the window.

The climb from his window onto the roof of the covered deck was easy by this point, but he made sure to keep it slow for Leo. They scooted to sit with their backs to the outer wall, Leo taking the granola bars Vincent held out to him and opening one without saying anything.

“So...that bike’s coming in useful?”

“Hm?” Leo looked over at him, mouth stuffed. Vincent raised an eyebrow.

“Your bike. I can’t see you walking all the way across town in the middle of the night.”

“Oh! Yeah.” Leo gestured in the general direction of Vincent’s yard without looking down, and Vincent peered over the edge of the roof to see Leo’s bike leaning against the side of the house where he’d climbed up the lattice. Leo made a quiet sound of discomfort, and Vincent hurriedly shuffled back to safety for his sake.

“Are you gonna tell me _why_ you biked all the way across town in the middle of the night?”

Leo lifted a shoulder in a noncommittal shrug.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he muttered around a mouthful of granola bar. “Didn’t wanna be…”

_Alone,_ Vincent finished in his head. He leaned back and folded an arm behind his neck, rolling his head to the side to look at Leo.

“What about Linda?”

“Didn’t want to wake her up.” Leo crumpled the granola bar wrapper and handed it to Vincent, opening the other one as Vincent shoved the trash in his pocket. “They got two more girls this week--I think they’re five and six? Anyways, the new kids usually don’t sleep easy, so I didn’t want to go to her room and wake them up.”

Vincent hummed, closing his eyes. He didn’t entirely understand Leo’s living situation--he’d never invited him to his house, and Vincent had never asked--but he knew that it was hard to get privacy. 

They lay in silence for a while, the only sounds the crickets and the crinkling of Leo’s granola bar wrapper. When Vincent opened his eyes again, Leo was laying with his arms behind his head, looking more relaxed than Vincent had seen him at heights like this--not including Vincent’s roof.

“Leo,” he whispered. Leo’s eyes opened slightly, and he hummed sleepily.

“You wanna sleep over?”

Leo bit the inside of his cheek, glancing up at the sky. Vincent knew what he was thinking.

“I’ll wake you up once my dad leaves,” he promised. “Mom won’t come in my room either, so you’ll be fine.”

They shimmied back down into Vincent’s room, and Leo flopped down onto the bed on autopilot as Vincent grabbed the extra blankets from his closet. He tossed them to Leo and lay down next to him, pulling his own blankets back up and turning over to face away from him.

“Night, Leo.”

Leo mumbled a reply, already sounding half-asleep.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Vincent rolled his eyes as Leo dropped onto the cafeteria bench beside him, but he slid his extra bag of chips over to him without a word. Leo took it without comment, their unspoken routine a second nature by now.

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not,” Leo admitted, grinning crookedly. Across the table, Emily narrowed her eyes at him.

“Please tell me--”

“--that I didn’t get a behavioural warning on the first day of high school?” Leo stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth, talking with his mouth full and spewing crumbs. “I cannot tell a lie.”

“What in the world did you do this time?” Carol demanded. Leo shrugged, grinning slyly.

“Ask Linda.”

As if on cue, Linda slid onto the bench beside him, crowding him closer to Vincent. Vincent grunted when Leo’s elbow jammed into his side, but the two were already launching into a retelling of the trouble they’d gotten into in the last two hours.

“--so awesome, I’m telling you, the look on her face--”

“--she turned absolutely red, you know when someone’s vein pops out in their forehead?”

“--thought she was going to kick your ass right there in front of everyone--”

Vincent finished his sandwich and stood, excusing himself with a mutter that was lost in the chatter. Carol was the only one who noticed him get up, and he could feel her eyes on his back as he disposed of his trash and left the cafeteria. She didn’t follow him, though, and he didn’t wait for her to.

He spent the first week of high school eating lunch in the band room with Gary, pretending to watch as he practiced. He doubted that his brother bought his excuse of “just wanting some peace and quiet,” but he didn’t press the issue.

Vincent attended Gary’s graduation on the weekend after junior year. He sat with their parents, trying not to doze off in the uncomfortable plastic chair while the graduates were called onstage by name. He caught Carol’s eye from across the aisle, and she smiled at him for a moment, only turning away to clap when her cousin’s name was called.

He found her when the ceremony was over, desperate to get away from his teary-eyed mother and her camera, and the expectant looks his father gave him every time someone asked about Gary’s plans for university. She was standing with her own family and looked grateful for an out as well, joining him on a walk down the deserted hallways of the school.

“I bet it’s going to be weird with Gary gone,” she said. Vincent laughed a little.

“You said it. I’m not looking forward to a year alone in the house with my parents.”

She nodded. They walked in silence for a while, their footsteps echoing eerily off the walls. After a few minutes, Carol stopped.

“That’s gonna be us next year,” she said softly. Vincent looked back at her, seeing her looking at him hesitantly.

“Yeah,” he said lamely, suddenly at loss for words. Carol glanced away, seeming to be making up her mind about something, before apparently steeling herself and walking towards him. He stood frozen as she closed the distance between them and, with an audible deep breath, gingerly placed her hands on his shoulders and pressed her lips against his.

Distantly, Vincent wondered if this counted as a first kiss. Were first kisses supposed to feel so...weird? Disappointing?

After a few moments of Vincent standing unresponsive, Carol pulled back. Her face was red, and she seemed to be having trouble meeting his eye; when she did, though, she gave him a small smile that looked almost...sad.

“Just thought I’d try at least once,” she whispered. Vincent didn’t answer--couldn’t answer--wondered if he’d be able to recover from the sheer awkwardness of this moment, when--

“There you losers are!”

Carol pulled away quickly, both of them turning to look down the hall. Linda was walking down the hall towards them, Leo following closely behind. They were both dressed formally, though Linda had on sneakers and mismatched socks under her dress, and Leo’s tie was tied too-loose over his shirt and open vest. Vincent guessed they’d been lingering in the back of the hall instead of being in the visible audience while their foster siblings got their diplomas.

“I didn’t know you two were here!” Carol exclaimed. Her voice was slightly too high and strained to sound casual, and Vincent doubted that he looked any more inconspicuous. There was no way they hadn’t seen the scene unfold from down the hall.

Bless Linda’s heart, she didn’t say anything--merely started off on a mostly one-sided conversation about her summer plans. Vincent met Leo’s eyes, and was momentarily taken aback--his expression was entirely unreadable, blank for the first time since Vincent had known him. He couldn’t think of anything to say, and for once, it seemed Leo couldn’t either.

It was nearing the last month of the worst year of Vincent’s short life when Leo scaled his house for the last time.

He’d grown used to waking up to loud cursing, but not from outside of his window. So, when his eyes snapped open at the first thump and “god fucking damnit--” he knew immediately who it was.

Sure enough, a second later one of Leo’s gangly arms was hooked inside of Vincent’s window frame--then the other--and then his head popped into view. It had been a while since Leo had climbed up, and the sight was a bit of a surprise, but Vincent was only taken off guard for a moment before he scrambled out of bed to fully open the window, since they were both too tall for one of them to be comfortably framed in the windowsill.

They didn’t talk. Vincent pulled on his socks and shoes and pulled a sweater over his head, looking up in time to see Leo’s legs disappearing as he climbed up to the covered deck.

Out of habit, Vincent slid open his bedside drawer, only to realize that it’d been almost a year since he’d stored anything in it. There was an unopened box of raisins--for some godforsaken reason--that he brought close to his face to check the date on, before sticking it in his sweater pocket and clambering up to the roof.

Leo was playing with a swiss army knife he’d gotten for Christmas, but he put it away when he saw Vincent watching the sharp blade warily. Vincent awkwardly shuffled to sit beside him, not used to the angle of the climb anymore, and pulled out the box of raisins. He held it out to Leo, who stared at it for a second before breaking out into a wide grin. He laughed as he took the box, but aside from that, ripped it open without comment. The familiarity was welcome in the midst of everything his life had become over the past months, and it made his chest tighten with some emotion he couldn’t put a name to.

“It’s been a while,” Leo spoke up, startling Vincent out of his thoughts. He was staring up at the stars, legs splayed and stretched out leisurely, as if he’d been there for ages. His natural ability to fit in made Vincent smile.

“It has.”

Leo sighed, running a hand over his face. “I’m sorry for that.”

Vincent furrowed his brow. “What? It’s not your fault.”

“It is, though.” He looked over, and Vincent was taken aback by the guilt in his eyes. “It’s completely my fault.”

Vincent shifted uncomfortably. “Well, it’s not like I went out of my way to fix anything, either.”

“There shouldn’t even be anything to fix!” Leo huffed, throwing his hands up in frustration. “We’ve been best friends for _years_ , and suddenly I just--I go and fuck everything up!”

He was getting to the point he got to sometimes--where his frustration came out without a filter, and would keep going until he’d gotten it all off his chest. So, as much as Vincent wanted to protest, he simply leaned back and listened.

“I mean, I didn’t even tell you _why_. I just kept it all to myself, didn’t do shit about it--probably ruined the best fucking friendship I’ve ever had--and left you completely in the fucking dark about _everything_ , let you feel like shit over it--and I know you did, Emily told me--she had to threaten to beat my ass for me to actually get over myself--but by then it’s too late, and I waited until the day I leave forever to tell you that I’m in love wi--”

He cut himself off abruptly, the unfinished words floating off and disappearing into the night. As Vincent watched, wide-eyed and breathless, he opened his eyes and slowly turned his head, looking more unsure of himself than Vincent had ever seen.

“I...didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

Vincent pushed himself to sit up, feeling suddenly dizzy. He rubbed his eyes hard, wondering for a moment if he was still asleep.

“You...you’re…”

_Sorry? In love with me?_

_Leaving?_

“Where are you going?” His voice came out small, unsure. He heard Leo sigh and sit up beside him.

“California. I’m gonna get my GED, get out of this town. As much as I appreciate my foster parents...I don’t know. This isn’t the place for me, Vince; hasn’t been for a while. Maybe ever.”

Vincent let out a shaky breath, trying to steel himself.

“And you’re leaving today?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re…”

“In love with you.” Leo’s voice was rough, would probably sound harsh to anyone’s ears but Vincent’s. “I’m in love with you, Vince. And I know it’s fucking stupid--you’re straight, I know that, you’re my best friend, you’ve done so much for me and you deserve so much more than--”

Leo’s words were cut off by Vincent’s lips when he grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in. It wasn’t awkward, didn’t feel wrong or disappointing--it felt _right_ , felt like _everything_.

It felt like _home._

“We’re so fucking stupid,” Vincent mumbled against Leo’s lips when they parted, and Leo’s laugh rang in his ears, as giddy as Vincent felt.

“Absolute morons.”

The giddiness faded all too soon when Vincent remembered what else Leo had said.

“You’re leaving.”

The mood dropped immediately. Leo pulled away, the miserable look back on his face.

“I--”

“Take me with you.”

The words were out of Vincent’s mouth before he realized he was even thinking them. Leo stared at him, mouth agape.

“What?”

“I mean--” Vincent squeezed his eyes shut and hurried to backtrack, “I’m sorry, that was--I shouldn’t have--”

“Do you mean it?”

Leo’s voice was hesitant, but he sounded...hopeful. Vincent opened his eyes again, scared of what he’d see in Leo’s.

Leo’s eyes glittered in the dim light. He was looking at Vincent like he held the fucking _stars_ , and a small flicker of something big started in Vincent’s chest.

“Yeah.” He glanced down to where his hands were pressed to the shingles. “Leo, I hate it here. Ever since Gary graduated my dad’s been getting worse--I can’t focus on school with all the yelling. I could get my GED too, we could both find jobs in the city--I have money saved up from my part times, it’s enough to get us there at least--”

Leo was laughing, hands coming up to cup Vincent’s face, thumbs brushing over his cheeks.

“You moron--you beautiful, hopeless, genius moron--”

“That’s not--” Vincent started, laughing into the kiss that Leo cut him off with, “it’s not--Leo--”

“Let’s go, then, let’s get out of here.” Leo grinned at him, warm and bright and everything to Vincent. 

It took him less than ten minutes to pack. He threw his bag down to Leo, who stored it in the trunk of his beaten-up car as Vincent scrambled down the lattice. He let Leo catch him up in his arms for a moment, lets him kiss him once, twice, before pulling away and getting into the car.

It was the first day of the rest of Vincent’s life when he sped away from everything he’d known, with the one person he’d ever wanted to learn it all over again with.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 2021! I don’t have much to say about this, other than it was something I really enjoyed writing. I found this AU idea really cute, and I ended up liking the finished product enough that I wanted to post it here. Also, there was some wonderful art done by koipiroska, an amazing artist who does a lot of cool pieces!
> 
> I hope the year is going good so far; if not, keep your chin up! There are people who love and support you, even if it sometimes doesn’t feel that way.


End file.
